Sidney Crosby wins game in shootout for Penguins

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Sidney Crosby hasn’t scored this many goals so early in a season. The goal that doesn’t count in his season’s total meant the most for the Penguins on a night they nearly gave away another game after leading late.

Crosby scored his 14th career game-winning shootout goal and Pittsburgh came back after giving up three leads to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Friday night.

Crosby and Kris Letang each put the puck past Justin Peters in the shootout, while Jeff Skinner and Jussi Jokinen, who had two tying goals, failed against Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury.

Jokinen is 26 of 52 in shootouts, the most attempts of any player, but is 0 for 2 this season.

Crosby has three more game-winning shoot- out goals than any other player since the NHL adopted the format in 2005. Crosby is 21 of 50 in shootouts.

“It was a little more open than usual, a few more mistakes than usual, but it’s a long season and you’ve got to worry about playing well,” said Crosby, who scored his 14th goal in regulation and had three assists. “If you do, the points will come, but it’s always nice to have a big night.”

He’s having a lot of them lately, with eight goals and 10 assists in eight games. With 14 goals, Crosby has three more goals than he’s ever had through 21 games. He had 10 in four of the last five seasons.

Penguins coach Dan Bylsma frequently played Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the same line, and the strategy worked as Malkin added three assists. On his second assist, Malkin became the 12th Penguins player with at least 400 points in his career.

Chris Kunitz scored twice for Pittsburgh, which won four times during a five-game stretch in which it collected nine points.

The Penguins led 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3, but Carolina answered each time. Jokinen, who also had a four-point night, tied it at 4 with his second of the game, a hard wrist shot from the right circle with 52 seconds left in regulation.